I have a 1994 Europa 450ES and the front left nut that the winding handle fits onto has sheered off. I have no option but to replace the whole steady of which there are a lot about but how do i remove the old one? I was expecting nuts and bolts but it looks totally wired. I have found the tops of the "bolts" inside the caravan and these are a dome that is flush to the floor. Underneath the van where these "Bolts" come through i was expecting to find nuts but whatever it is that has been used is not hexagon shaped but perfectly round with no edges for a spanner to grip.Does anyone have any ideas how to get this steady off please?
Find a socket very slightly smaller & hammer it onto nut & it should it should come off using ratchet bar & extension. This is a trick used to remove Allen bolts that have rounded off so might work in your case.
There are rounded off nut removers available, more grip as you tighten, but I'll guess that if you can turn the underneath nut the dome head bolt may turn too. Looks like a cut off job but access is difficult.
You need to be careful here. Those dome headed bolts will have a square section under the head that stops the bolts rotating as the nut below is tightened. Now the nut won't be especially tight, since over tightening originally would have crushed the floor.
However, with age the nut can rust onto the bolt, and if the whole bolt starts turning, then life will get more difficult.
Being an older van may help here, as you may have plain nuts rather than the nyloc nuts now used. Spray plenty of WD 40 over the nut and exposed threads before you start, and wire brush the threads. By all means try a socket or ring spanner, but go easy! If you feel it crack, stop then re-tighten. Then undo a tiny bit more and re tighten. Proceed with this cycle, cleaning the threads as you go, to avoid the bolts turning. The technique is to wiggle the nut back and forth, as trying to wind it off in one go will almost certainly cause it to lock up, and then the bolt will rotate.
If a socket doesn't work, try some decent waterpump pliers - remember the nut shouldn't be especially tight, just locked by rust.
Choose the replacement leg carefully, there are different lengths...
try getting yourself a set of these badboys https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cht246-nut-splitter-set/
will be awkward getting them on but a lot easier than trying to cut the nuts with a hacksaw, dont do a al and take a grinder to it, too much wood about and hot metal and timbeer arent best pals
Many thanks for all your replies. The nuts don't appear to be rounded off. All of them on all the legs are identical, perfectly cylindrical. I have never come across perfectly round nuts before so was wondering if these were some different kind of fixture like a pin of some kind. There is less than a mm of thread (if it is a thread) poking out the bottom of each of these "nuts" so there's not a lot of surface area to squirt wd40 on to. I can't do anything until the weekend so if there are any more suggestions out there they will be very welcome
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Topic: Corner steady replacement
